


Fault Lines

by ThereIsNoTragedyInThat



Series: Spirits and Cocaine [14]
Category: Narcos (TV)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Domestic Fluff, Ficlet, Fluff, I'm Sorry, Idiots in Love, Infidelity, M/M, a little sleep deprived, insecure Javier Peña, look at me making up for the last one again, this is sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29527356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereIsNoTragedyInThat/pseuds/ThereIsNoTragedyInThat
Summary: The only thing Javier needed to hear.
Relationships: Steve Murphy/Javier Peña
Series: Spirits and Cocaine [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100027
Comments: 14
Kudos: 33





	Fault Lines

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Watching TV

It was late.

Javier’s beer sat untouched on his coffee table, sweating into the wood and joining the half a dozen rings that marked their place. He had one arm thrown up on the back of the couch, body half turned toward the TV and half turned toward his partner, his eyes steady on the man next to him.

On the screen some shitty soap opera played, the characters exclaiming wildly and dramatically about their lives, but Javier had stopped paying attention three episodes ago, once it was obvious the plot went nowhere. He had found something far more entertaining to watch, more important.

Steve leaned back on the couch, body slumped, and socked feet stacked up on the table, while he sipped from his second beer. He still wore the jeans and button up shirt he’d had on at the office, didn’t seemed inclined to get more comfortable anytime soon. That was just as well, they both knew he wouldn’t be returning to his empty apartment tonight.

Javier swallowed a laugh, watched the way Steve’s lips twisted in frustration as he tried to follow the lines closely, eyes narrowed in concentration, mouth tracing the words slowly. There were no captions and no clues as to what the show was about and it was quickly becoming one Javier’s favourite pass times to watch him muddle his way through Spanish by watching TV.

At first, Steve had nagged him, wanted him to give him proper lessons but after their first attempt ended with his partner bent over the kitchen table…well Javier figured he’d cut his losses and stay well away from language studies, that way Steve couldn’t blame him for his mistakes.

Soon, his partner would grow weary and demand they either switched to something with subtitles or turn it off all together, either one Javier was happy to comply with…was willing to do just about anything to keep him distracted from the gaping wound Connie had left in him.

Javier didn’t blame her and he knew Steve didn’t either.

He’d been doing better, lately, seemed to be smiling more, engaging more. The conversations Javier overheard on the phone with Connie seemed casual enough, happy enough and he’d gotten real good at shoving down the guilt when Steve would kiss him right after.

Except…well this was starting to feel like more than a lapse in good judgment. Javier found himself at a loss as they started talking more and more about the future, when Steve asked about visiting him in Texas, wanted him to come down to Miami, places he wanted to see, trips they should take when they finally got Escobar. Javier was left with his heart in his throat as the man spoke like they had forever waiting for them.

Surreal.

That was the word for it. He didn’t spend much time thinking beyond next week and always in context of the job and the next one and the next one. Yet, when he was with Steve and his buoyant optimism…well it was hard not to dream for something more, to pretend that loving this man was the easiest thing in the world.

“Hey.”

Javier blinked rapidly, found Steve staring at him with a troubled expression “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Steve raised an eyebrow like he knew he was lying, and Javier wasn’t the least bit surprised. There were very few things he could slip past his partner’s notice, his astute gaze always watching him, “want to try that again?”

“Not really.”

He sighed and took his feet off the table, beer finally being put down in their place and Javi fully expected him to let it go, to stand up and stretch before starting his meagre nightly routine. Of course, he was starting to learn that Steve wasn’t as predictable as he first believed him to be.

Running a hand through his hair, those startingly intense eyes settled on him, pinning him to the spot, “I know we’re not really the type to say…” he grimaced, and Javier felt his stomach twist with trepidation. “But you know I love you right?”

Huh.

The thing was Javier _did_ know that. He wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t naïve, it had taken him all of ten minutes to figure out the look in his eyes when they first met and to dismiss it as nothing but a crush. Now, nearly a year working together, his wife gone, and nobody else in the world to lean on, he could easily see why Steve might love him, why he might think this was something that might last.

But hearing it, watching Steve’s mouth shape and caress the words, watching his tongue lick the L and his lips part like he was inhaling Javi from where he sat barely five inches away, that made it so fucking _real_.

“Javi?” Steve’s lips twitched into a frown, doubt clouding his eyes. “Are you alright?”

Swallowing thickly, he forced himself to nod, “come here.”

Steve blinked once and then he was scrambling forward, shifting so his knees were under him and leveraging him so he could lean right over and Javi didn’t let him catch his balance. Reaching a hand up, he curled it in the fabric of his shirt and pulled him down with a huff, until he could kiss him and taste the words himself, Steve’s weight a comfortable blanket over his body.

Javier only let him go when he chuckled against his mouth, pulling back just enough that their lips hovered only centimeters apart, “so I should have said that earlier right?”

Reaching his hands up, Javier cupped Steve’s face, let himself sink into the depths of his eyes, the expression of fondness there, just for him, “say it again.”

Steve’s lips twitched, “I love-”

Javier kissed him, stole the words from his tongue, pulled back only to whisper, “again.”

He did, lips moving only for Javier to hold him close and lick up the sound of them, to insist again and again and again, demanding Steve repeat them against his skin until they were branded on his heart, until the doubts melted away and left him with only _certainty_.


End file.
